Behind Les Petits Prödiges are two young women who want to change our daily beauty routine. How? By offering 100% natural and "made in France" products. After the launch of a balm in late 2017, their new deodorant could well revolutionize our relationship with hygiene! We meet Clémentine Granet, one of the co-founders.

Camille Brégeaut and Clémentine Granet are, first and foremost, two friends who have known each other for about ten years. They met at 18 at IESEG School of Management in Paris. After working for two years in two major cosmetic groups, it became clear to them. We use too many products daily for our beauty routine. Most of them are also harmful and expensive! An outrage.

Back to basics

Little by little, an idea began to germinate and finally blossomed in January 2017. To create a product with only seven natural ingredients. But before starting, they had to find the right person to create this famous "little prodigy". Camille and Clémentine eventually met a chemist in a small laboratory in the south of France. They launched a multi-purpose balm with organic olive oil, beeswax, sweet almond oil, arnica, and royal jelly in late 2017.

This cosmetic product can be used as a facial treatment, body treatment, hand treatment, lip balm, hair tip treatment, makeup remover, aftershave balm, and for massages. The balm is also 100% cruelty-free (meaning it is not tested on animals). And it contains no parabens, preservatives, sulfates, or alcohol.

A successful first attempt

The "green, sexy, and accessible" startup doesn't stop there. It has just launched the first "made in France" tube deodorant, which is vegan, cruelty-free, and eco-friendly. The packaging is made of biodegradable cardboard.

The deodorant is available for pre-order exclusively on the Ulule crowdfunding platform, where the two young women launched their first project two years ago, reaching 400% of their goal. This new project also exceeded all their expectations, as 100% of their goal was reached in a few hours. One hundred pre-sales were made in two days and 1600 in just one week!

Is it difficult to get started?

For Clémentine, "the hardest part was leaving our respective jobs, which were very good positions with good salaries, to embark on a multifaceted adventure." Even if there is concern, the enthusiasm is also palpable. " It may seem strange, but being very young (26 when we started), our professional experiences had certainly allowed us to make some decisions, but not 'strategic' decisions on which the company would depend. It was a little scary at first, not being able to rely on anyone, being solely responsible for our actions, but in the end, it's super exciting and challenging."

If the young woman had one piece of advice to give to those who want to start their own business, it would be to do it "as soon as possible, even if everything isn't 100% ready. The longer you wait, the greater the risk that someone else will launch the same idea faster. It's a race! And then, there's no better test than exposing your project to the light of day. That's how you progress, adapt, and readjust what's not working. "

Being well-supported is the key to success

The two young women had the opportunity to be accompanied by the Elles by Contrex program via the Ulule campaign. It supports women with a professional or personal project to encourage them to take the plunge.

As Clémentine explains, "Ulule is a great platform to test your project or product. The members are very attentive and want to know who is behind the project, beyond the product itself. This helped us a lot in our early days, in late 2017, first to see the general enthusiasm around the project, and also to build a first database of loyal and very influential customers."

"Elles by Contrex also supported us during our first campaign by putting in 1 euro for every euro donated to the pot (up to a total of 2500 euros), which allowed us to reach 100% of the pot's goal in one day," the co-founder specifies.

One year after the launch of Petits Prödiges, the two friends are profitable and incubated by L'Oréal at the renowned Station F.

Diversify and export

The keyword for 2019? "Accelerate"! Now that they are sure the concept is taking hold and that people are receptive, they want to "scale up by developing more products." A shampoo, shower gel/soap, and toothpaste are already in the pipeline. "The ultimate goal is to convert people who are not already 'bio-addicts' to natural cosmetics, by offering them products that do not compromise the pleasure and sensoriality of their beauty routine."

The second objective is to expand into export by exhibiting from March 14 to 18 at the upcoming Cosmoprof, the world's largest cosmetics trade show, in Bologna. "This is an opportunity for us to meet foreign buyers and distributors and see how the brand is perceived. "